About Me

Welcome to my blog. My pen name is Eva James. I'm an aspiring writer paying the bills working as a legal secretary.
Relentlessly bullied by my former boss, I looked for another job but the recession hit. Feeling trapped, I recorded everything in this blog, which serves as a revealing insight into workplace bullying.
WEEK 1 starts the story and, as the weeks progress, you'll note what starts as banter soon spirals out of control. Sadly, it's all true. Whilst along the way I've found alternative employment, my passion for blogging about workplace bullying remains.
Trevor Griffiths, legendary theatre, TV and film writer said at the outset, "I like the writing a lot: smart, cool, placed. If you were prepared/able to take your prick of a boss on, you'd marmelise him."

Saturday, 29 December 2012

I’ve been watching my fair
share of Christmas telly and it’s been entertaining stuff. One of the better
programmes was the BBC2 Boxing Day drama, The Girl, which portrayed Hitchcock’s
bullying of his leading lady, Tippi Hedrin.

Hitchcock, it appears, could
be the boss from hell. With hindsight, it’s not that hard to believe. He was a
genius at suspense, had a fascination with psychology, together with the fact that many films have a
sexual undertone and gallows humour. But that’s not to say he would automatically have created a
tense psychological drama off stage. So why did he start?

A clue can be found in The Telegraph. The paper gave voice to
Hitchcock’s friends and admirers who jumped to his defence. “Hitchcock was one
of the best directors” said one and another said: “You had to take Hitchcock with a pinch of salt”.

It’s what I’ve been saying
all along. People bully others often simply because they can. They’re given
more leeway because they’re a genius at what they do, because they own the
company or because they bring in money. And the brave individuals who stand up
and say: ‘He doesn’t deserve that
sort of leeway’ often pay for their honesty.

There are enough perks to
being a famous director or running a company or earning pots of money.
Tormenting the people who work with you or for you isn’t one of them.

Saturday, 22 December 2012

Back in
May, I wrote about Adrian Beecroft’s report suggesting companies should have
the power to fire workers without them being able to claim unfair dismissal.
Vince Cable moaned about the report, but compromised. He extended workers’
initial ‘at will’ period from one year to two.

The duo have popped up again.

An article last Tuesday in the Independent revealed that Beecroft asked
for the statutory redundancy consultation period to be reduced from 90 to 30
days to enable businesses to get rid of staff faster.

Cable compromised and cut the consultation period in half – to 45 days.

So who is Adrian Beecroft? He’s a heavyweight Conservative Party donor
and venture capitalist. Previously, he’s called Vince Cable a socialist because
he curbs Beecroft’s brutal employment reform suggestions. Cable has accused
Beecroft of unduly scaring workers.